Scottish Executive

Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003

Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken regarding the information campaign on positive parenting and alternative disciplinary tactics, announced by the Deputy First Minister and Minister for Justice on 19 February 2003 during the Stage 3 debate on the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill 2003 ( Official Report , c 18425), and how much money has been allocated to the campaign.

Cathy Jamieson: The Executive is preparing an information campaign on positive parenting and alternatives to physical punishment which will be launched to coincide with the commencement of section 51 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 in the autumn. This will also inform parents about changes in the law.

  The campaign, whose budget has yet to be finalised, is being developed in partnership with voluntary sector and other relevant stakeholders and will be closely linked to the Executive’s other major supportive programmes for parents and children.

Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003

Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when section 51 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 will come into force.

Cathy Jamieson: Section 51 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 will come into force this autumn, on a date yet to be finalised.

Drugs Courts

Mr Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what evaluation it has made of drugs courts.

Hugh Henry: The pilot drugs courts in Glasgow and Fife will run for an initial period of two years and are subject to independent evaluations, comprising a six-month process evaluation, a two-year outcome evaluation with a final report a year later. The process evaluation on the Glasgow drugs court was published in November 2002 and the process evaluation for the Fife drugs court will be published within the next two months. The outcome evaluation of Glasgow drugs court will be available early in 2004 with a final report (including the results of a reconviction study) to be submitted in January 2005 and the reports for Fife about one year later.

Drugs Courts

Mr Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to introduce new drugs courts across Scotland.

Hugh Henry: As the Partnership Agreement states, we will use the model of drugs courts across Scotland where they are needed. The findings of the independent evaluation of the two-year pilots of the drugs courts in Glasgow and Fife will inform our decisions about the future policy on drugs courts in Scotland.

Drugs Courts

Mr Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has for a drugs court in Aberdeen.

Hugh Henry: Ministers will decide the future policy on drugs courts, in Aberdeen and elsewhere in Scotland, when they have the findings of the independent evaluation of the two-year pilot drugs courts in Glasgow and Fife.

Europe

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the remit is of the ad hoc group on European strategy established by the Cabinet on 18 June 2003; which ministers and officials will be on the group; when it will first meet, and how often it will meet.

Mr Andy Kerr: The remit of the Ad Hoc Group of Ministers on European Strategy is to consider:

  how co-ordination of policy with the UK Government in relation to the conclusions of the Convention of the Future of Europe can be sustained effectively;

  forthcoming European legislation and the wider European reform agenda, and

  working relationships with other parts of the EU, particularly the Group of Regions with Legislative Powers (REGLEG) on these issues.

  The members of the Ad Hoc Group of Ministers on European Strategy are:

  The First Minister (Chair)

  Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning

  Minister for Finance and Public Services

  Minister for Parliamentary Business

  Minister for Environment and Rural Development

  Minister for Justice

  Minister for Transport

  Lord Advocate

  Deputy Minister for Finance, Public Services and Parliamentary Business.

  Officials will attend the group to advise ministers as required.

  The group had its first meeting on 25 June and will meet thereafter as and when required.

Europe

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether membership of the ad hoc group on European strategy established by the Cabinet on 18 June 2003 will be exclusively for ministers and officials or whether there is scope to involve other organisations.

Mr Andy Kerr: Membership of the Ad Hoc Group of Ministers on European Strategy is limited to ministers only.

Family Law

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will introduce a family law bill, as referred to in A Partnership for a Better Scotland .

Cathy Jamieson: The Executive has made a commitment in the Partnership Agreement to legislate to reform law for all of Scotland’s people and we will bring forward our proposals in due course once all the various policy strands are further advanced.

Fire Service

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many fires were started wilfully in each of the last three years, broken down by fire brigade area and how much each fire cost to deal with, expressed also as a percentage of fires and of the total cost of dealing with fires.

Hugh Henry: The most recent statistics on the number of fires started wilfully in the Scottish Fire Brigade areas which are available cover the period 1999-2001, and are shown in the following table.

  


Brigade 
  

1999 
  

2000 
  

2001 
  



Strathclyde 
  

4,922 
  

4,956 
  

4,779 
  



Highland and Islands 
  

126 
  

120 
  

131 
  



Grampian 
  

480 
  

500 
  

516 
  



Tayside 
  

524 
  

604 
  

635 
  



Lothian and Borders 
  

1,696 
  

1,736 
  

1,771 
  



Fife 
  

414 
  

491 
  

532 
  



Central 
  

308 
  

338 
  

364 
  



Dumfries and Galloway 
  

64 
  

70 
  

78 
  



Total 
  

8,534 
  

8,815 
  

8,806 
  



  Sources:

  Fire Statistics United Kingdom 1999

  Office of Deputy Prime Minister

  Fire Statistics Scotland, 2000

  Fire Statistics Scotland, 2001

  Statistics relating to the costs of wilful fire raising are not available in the format requested. However, I would refer the member to the report Joint Thematic Inspection: Fire: Raising the Standard published in 2002, section 4 of which provides some estimate of the economic costs of fire raising in Scotland. This document is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 20981).

Genetically Modified Crops

Mr Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the budget allocated by the Department of Trade and Industry to COI Communications to publicise and facilitate the United Kingdom's public debate on genetic modification is adequate to sample opinion in Scotland.

Ross Finnie: I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-822 on 25 June 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Justice

Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any fiscal fines have been offered and accepted for assault where a weapon has been used in the last six years.

Colin Boyd QC: During the financial year 2002-03, procurators fiscal received reports containing 3,188 charges of assault where a weapon had been used. Thirty accused were offered a fiscal fine, and 12 of these are recorded as having been paid.

  These cases included cases where an object such as a plastic bottle, mobile phone, bag or umbrella was brandished or thrown at an individual, whether or not the object made any contact.

  Figures for earlier years are not available.

Justice

Dr Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the scope of the proposed sentencing commission will be.

Cathy Jamieson: A Partnership for a Better Scotland made clear that the Executive would set up a judicially led sentencing commission to review sentencing and make recommendations on:

  the use of bail and remand;

  the basis on which fines are determined;

  the effectiveness of sentences in reducing re-offending;

  the scope to improve consistency of sentencing, and

  the arrangements for early release from prison, and supervision of short-term prisoners on their release.

Local Government Finance

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether local authorities will be granted additional funding relating to the annual operational cost of the additional secure accommodation places for young offenders, referred to in its news release SEed 228/2003 of 24 March 2003

Cathy Jamieson: Each local authority receives an allocation through Grant Aided Expenditure to assist with its residential care costs. Local arrangements should be in place to manage the use of secure accommodation in line with social work budgets. The assessment criteria for new proposals considered the need to minimise both capital costs and fee level while providing for high quality services which meet the needs of young people and communities.

National Lottery Funding

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much national lottery funding has been allocated in total and per head of population in each postcode area of (a) Paisley and (b) the Renfrewshire Council area.

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much national lottery funding has been allocated in total and per head of population to non-national organisations in each postcode area of (a) Paisley and (b) the Renfrewshire Council area.

Mr Frank McAveety: The distribution of national lottery funds is a matter for the Lottery Distribution Bodies: Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Screen,  sportscotland, New Opportunities Fund, Community Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and Millennium Commission. The information requested is not held centrally by the Executive.

  The Department for Culture, Media and Sport maintains a database of national lottery awards on their website which sets out the total awarded to each constituency area and each local authority area for each lottery good cause.

Police

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-5273 by Mr Jim Wallace on 30 May 2002, when the further work by the working group on the distribution of funds to police forces was completed; what conclusions were reached, and what further action has been, or will be, taken as a result.

Cathy Jamieson: The Police Grant Aided Expenditure (GAE) Review working group completed its initial reassessment of the proposals put forward by independent consultants in September 2002. On the basis of this analysis, the group recommended, as an interim step, that additional funding should be made available to four police forces (Grampian Police, Fife Constabulary, Central Scotland Police and Northern Constabulary) in each of 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06. The Executive accepted these initial recommendations. As a result, for example, the GAE for Grampian Police in 2005-06 has been increased by £2.5 million. However, the group also concluded that a number of aspects needed further work before it could reach a final recommendation and this further work is now being undertaken with a view to completion by March 2004.

Sport

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funds are available for developing Hampden Park, Glasgow, as a sports campus.

Mr Frank McAveety: The Executive launched in March 2003 its national and regional facilities strategy.  Sportscotland will shortly issue guidance and invite proposals from potential partners for the development of a suite of regional indoor training facilities for football and other sports.